Is SQL Server 2019 More CPU-Intensive Than SQL Server 2016?


I’m running into something that I’m having a hard time believing.

A client was hitting CPU issues during load testing, and they swore all things were equal between their SQL Server 2016 and 2019 environments. The 2019 box was having CPU pressure issues that didn’t show up on the 2016 box. I’ve played this game before, and every time, the root cause has been different configurations between the two servers.

However, this time, not only were the servers the same, but I’m even seeing this same behavior with a simple query that I can reproduce on any 2016 vs 2019 setup. I